La Bella Noche: Voices of the Past

Chapter I: Feeding

"I wish to possess you. I wish to touch you. I wish to know you. I will hold you. I will caress you. I will reach into the very depths of your soul. I will invoke a spirit in you that will allow you to see the world as the gods do. I will give you inhuman strength. I will give you the sky bejeweled with stars. I will ignite you with passion. I will make you eternally young."

A pause.

" Your years will know no end. Let me have you and in return I will give you immortality. I will give you all of my being, and my fortune, but my greatest gift to you is my heart, my love, take it and I promise you the world. Deny me, and I will most surely die. As will you in due time. Come with me and I will take you away from all this sadness, all this…

(He pauses again, searching for a strong enough word) life. Come with me and I will show you all that love can be."

Then I hear kissing, the couple making love, then the images blur, I hear hurried Italian, I see the sky, I hear yelling… screaming, I see a forest, it's raining and the lightning rips through the trees, the woman is running now and falls to her knees on more than one occasion, she scratches her face and arms on the unkind foliage around her, finally she hears someone angrily approaching her from behind, she panics and runs deeper into the Forrest, finally she stops to rest behind a tree in a small thicket of briars. She opens her cloak and deposits a bundle at the base of the tree, tears streaming down her face; she purposely strides back the way she came. There is no trace of fear in her eyes now, only sadness. For a moment there is silence, and then suddenly a burst of white green light, I hear her body hit the Forrest floor and then all goes dark.

3:27 a.m.

I awake panting, drenched in a cold sweat, riddled with fear. I've been having the same dream for the past fourteen years and it still manages to scare me out of my mind. At seventeen you'd think I'd be past the night terrors stage. I would dwell on that, but currently, I have more pressing matters to attend to. Its time for my nightly feeding, oh joy.

I slowly open my bed hangings and cast a silencing charm on my bed, I slip on a pair of Gryffindor socks, and I'm out the door wand in hand. I could tell you I'm on my way to the kitchens or the great hall for a little midnight snack or I could tell you that I'm hypoglycemic and I have to eat constantly to stay healthy, which in a way I guess is true, it's just what I have to eat that causes others to feel a little squeamish. But since I can't change my past why should I lie or tell half-truths? I'm heading to the infirmary. Right now I know you might be asking yourself why in hell would I be going to the infirmary if I were hungry? Well my dear friend, I am the scourge that walks the night, I am she that rules in darkness and scorns the light, I am the undead.

(Pause for dramatic effect)

I am… Vampire! No seriously, I am. A Vampire that is. I'm really just a normal teenage girl, I just happen to have problems with true or direct sunlight, I have heightened senses and a few special abilities, I'm extra lusty when horny, it's the blood lust that does it, and I can thrall, oh and to survive I have to drink a nominal amount of blood. Now you know why the infirmary is my destination of choice. I used to go to the kitchens but the house elves, get really jumpy when I go into feeding mode, and I really like them so I asked Dumbledore to let me switch to the infirmary. I walk a few more steps and come upon the great-carved double doors that shut the Hospital wing off from the castle, I rap my signature into the door (two short, pause, three fast), They open slowly and I enter.

"Madame Pompfrey?" I call out into the dark, I can see her perfectly as if she were standing in a lighted room, I could sense her smell her the moment I reached the Hospital wing, I could hear her heart beat at the doors. After the first few times I came to the infirmary and almost scared her into a coma by coming up on her so silently, I started knocking and announcing my presence.

"Yes, Angelina dear?" She is most grateful for my understanding

"I've come for my… medicine." I say, my self-loathing painfully evident

"Oh yes dear, it's on the bedside as usual. Oh I also had Professor Snape brew up a fresh batch of his sunlight draught, it's supposed to be particularly sunny for the next week or so, and I don't want you burning so drink that glass as well." She wishes I would just accept my fate, and let her baby me.

Never.

"If I must." I say walking slowly over to the bed. I decide to drink the sunlight draught first, I pick up the glass and drain it's lemony yellow contents. I wait a few moments, as it integrates into my body's blood stream protecting me from the suns harsh rays. I place the empty glass on the bedside table and pick up one of the blood bags.

"Tonight it seems we'll be having A positive, with a side of B negative" I say jokingly however morbidly. I squeeze the first bag tightly, my fangs unsheathe, and I drink. She warmed them tonight how,… sweet. I can feel the blood immediately as it hits my system, it's as though I've slept for days I feel more alert, more relaxed, I feel intelligent, rejuvenated, I feel beautiful, I feel… the bottom of the bag fast approaching. I take one last swallow and inhale the last drops. I toss the empty bag into the trash and drain the second one in the same fashion.

There's never any residue, because my fangs are like those of spiders and some snakes. Gross, I know but I have a point. Ha, I'm so punny. Anyway, their fangs are hollow so that poison can be pumped down through them, mine are the same except they work backwards and allow blood to be sucked up them.

I stand up and straighten my clothes out, and stride towards the mirror at the other end of the room; I stare purposefully at my reflection. Yes I have a reflection. Forget what the old myths tell you we have reflections, it's just in the early days of change one could get caught up in blood lust and kill those closest to them, dealing with that grief, loss, and guilt became so powerful that many Vampires began to view their own faces as anathema, and so began the 'reflection' myth. I can't say I blame them.

I look prettier than usual, my hair is an inch longer and it falls in a body waved curtain onto my back, my fangs have retracted some but won't go in completely until the beast within me realizes that there is no more blood to be had, my eyes are a brilliant lilac, they get this way after I drink, and as I come off my blood high they will darken slowly to my natural dark brown, my lips are fuller, my chocolate skin is tinged with a healthy red gold pigment, and my body is rounder in all the right places. I look like a supermodel, any man's fantasy and all I can think of right now is sex.

Sex and blood go hand in hand with us Vampires. The only stories about us that are consistently true are the ones about our sexual appetites. Blood is our life source and we through many generations of adaptations can hear it running through the veins of our quarry we can even hear it rushing through the heart. Like most animals the scent is also important to us, the scent of fear, the kill, and lust are all very close to one another and it is when these emotions and scents get tangled that you get your dead humans.

Dead humans are honestly the furthest thing from my mind right now what I want, is a live one. A healthy, stout, sexy one, one with red hair, freckles, and a gorgeous smile, with a lean muscled frame, and a light dusting of auburn hair that leads to his sweet spot. I want Fred Weasley. Before I knew it I was out of the infirmary and on my way back to Gryffindor tower. When I finally looked up I realized I was half way up the stairs to the boys dormitory, I turned quickly and raced back to my own dorm.

I took two cold showers, and sent myself to bed.

I've finally learned to control my powers, but something is coming something big and I don't know what it is. I've needed more blood to stay alert, and my sexual urges have been even harder to control. But I must contain them because I cannot let my peers find out about my dark little secret, and I cannot give into the temptation that Fred presents to me, I do not know what I would be capable of during full lust, and if I cannot guarantee his safety, I won't even entertain the idea of becoming his lover.

On second thought, maybe in not so normal after all.